Yoga and meditation in cardiovascular disease

Yoga is a holistic mind-body intervention aimed at physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. Several studies have shown that yoga and/or meditation can control risk factors for cardiovascular disease like hypertension, type II diabetes and insulin resistance, obesity, lipid profile, psychosocial stress and smoking. Some randomized studies suggest that yoga/meditation could retard or even regress early and advanced coronary atherosclerosis. A recent study suggests that transcendental meditation may be extremely useful in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease and may reduce cardiovascular events by 48% over a 5-year period. Another small study suggests that yoga may be helpful in prevention of atrial fibrillation. However, most studies have several limitations like lack of adequate controls, small sample size, inconsistencies in baseline and different methodologies, etc. and therefore large trials with improved methodologies are required to confirm these findings. However, in view of the existing knowledge and yoga being a cost-effective technique without side effects, it appears appropriate to incorporate yoga/meditation for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.